Today was my first group ride like this. I met the group in Walnut Creak, and was immediately amazed at the number of people along for the ride. It was easily fifty riders out for the House Of Pain Saturday ride. The first 35 minutes were an easy warm-up pace. I got to chat with Chris Lieto for a few minutes, in which he warned me that when we hit the rollers some guys would attack and if I wanted to save myself from being dropped I should make sure to be in the front. As you can see on the chart, when the rollers started (the grey line), the pace went from 30 kph to 50kph.
Around an hour forty into the ride a guy in an F-250 came by us, honking, and swerving, then he merged his car into the pack, pushing the leaders off the road (I was luckily near the back of the pack) and into the gravel. As I watched orange Team Oakland jerseys bailing into the gravel, the truck slammed on his breaks, skidded to a stop, put his truck in reverse and spun his tires as he attempted to back over the cyclists behind him (at this point I was fully stopped at a safe distance) A moment of humanity must have come over the driver at that point, because he finally stopped his car. The moment passed, and he went to get out of his car, but noticed that there were about 30 men in spandex buzzing on endorphins and adrenaline. We surrounded the car, took pictures of the license plate, and waited for the police to show up. The guy got off with a lecture, which was not worth my 30 minutes of waiting around to see what would happen.
Here’s another google map:
why is it that all you group rides seem to turn into more than just a ride? I have never had exciting events like this on my rides. What’s you secret?
the secret is to not get dropped. you can only have fun things happen during a group ride if you’re actually with the group.
Ok that was just plain mean.
Did you like my new truck?
Yeah, the truck looked nice, it was your wife that needs replacing. (She was screaming “F- you! What the F- is your problem? f-ity-f-f-f” it really wasn’t very lady like).
unbelievable story, did he really just get off with a lecture? That pisses me off! Did you get to climb Diablo? Great climb, no cars (or trucks) there either.
glad to hear training is going well.
-Greg